Magic Mildura & the Little Black Duck - Mildura, Australia
Mildura, Australia
Where I stayed
BIG4 Golden River Holiday Park
Another magic morning awoken at 6 by the raucous corellas, (who, Heather tells me, nest in holes in the riverbank), assorted water fowl & whinging swamp hens! Since our milk was off we packed up & headed over to The Bean cafe for a heart starter & a catch up with overnight emails & txts. Glad to hear the news from RPA is positive in terms of the operation last night. We keep hoping things will improve for sister Sue. She's getting 1:1 nursing 24 hours - how amazing is that!
Only 230km or so to drive today - along the Murray Valley Hwy then onto the Sturt - easy straight roads for the most part - easy for the huge produce-laden trucks to pass us!
Drove past vast orchards of citrus, olives, almonds, stone fruit etc - then vast stretches of mallee scrub when away from the River. Their August almond blossom festival must be glorious. Apparently 98% of Australia's dried fruit comes from this region!! Also grow pistachios, asparagus, grapes formtable & wines etc... Looking forward to trying some of these!!
The Mildura BIG4 with ensuite is very comfy & we are lucky to be allowed to stay 2 nights instead of 3, since this is apparently a long weekend in Vic! We did a drive round, found the wonderful, huge iCentre with very knowledgeable staff, great maps & brochures, indigenous artifacts & multimedia resources.
Very hot still at 35+ so we drove round following the Chaffey trail - dedicated to the brilliant Canadian brothers who engineered the first irrigation designs for the area. George & William invented the revolutionary Psyche pump - triple expansion steam engine connected to 3 centrifugal pumps, driven by a wood burning boiler. They could irrigate up to 33,000 acres! Pity the first bumper crops, which attracted thousands to live in the area, was followed by a severe drought so no transport available up the river, nor did Mildura have a railway line - so fruit rotted on the vines & trees! Of course the Chaffeys copped the blame from the Vic govt & local farmers! A sad end to their visions but William stayed on, persevered, sold everything, went bankrupt but refused to give up his dream & later became Mayor of Mildura - was presented with a car! Thankfully he was supported by Alfred Deakin the PM - so no wonder Mildura's main street is named after him!
We were very impressed by his historic Rio Vista House - beautifully restored - right next to and run by the Art Gallery.
Finished with a quick drive around the wharf area to check out the paddlesteamers, intending to take a trip through Lock 11 on one tomorrow. Spotted a tiny paddle wheeler coming into dock & started chatting to Frank & Kay, proud owners of this great little ’river caravan!' They offered to take us through the lock tomorrow if we can get there by 2:30! Told them it depended on our wine tasting venture but hoped we could make it in time! How kind.
Sat 11/3
Wow what a top day!!
Spent a cruisy hour in the morning finding some new scuffs for Bangers who injured his heel on a wayward trolley before we left Glenorie, refilling gas bottle & refuelling diesel & coffee! Headed straight to the much heralded Sunraysia Wine & Food Centre to be royally entertained & informed by charming & passionate wine/foodie, Luke! He gave us the full tasting treatment (over 250 local wines on offer - we gave it our best shot - those who cant afford cellar doors but whose wines are still wonderful!)
Two hours later - after chatting to locals as well of course - we staggered to the car with a lovely mixed dozen, after tasting some new grapes for us a most wineries are switching to Spanish & Italian grapes which grow best in the area - very smart! Bought some yummo dried apricots, plums, pears & peaches which we'll be allowed to take across the SA border tomoz. Have to leave a few veg behind at the campsite but no biggie - gorged on baked veggies last night
A quick lunch of wrap, cheese, crackers & finishing up our baby cues (not binning these little faves!) then off to the Mildura wharf to catch our new found friends from yesterday's chat, Frank & Kay, take their cute little paddle wheeler, the Miralie (aboriginal for little black duck apparently?!) through Lock 11 (we were a bit late for them to wait & take us on board so we hurried to the weir & caught them!) They kindly offered to pick us up round the bend so we walked the plank on board & spent a wonderful hour tootling up the river & back, while they waited for friends - bride & groom - to board for photo op! They'll have to spend the night on the river & book into the lock to return tomorrow! Lovely generous people - hope we see them again when they come to Castle Hill later in the year to visit their son! We offered our paddock!
Back to the air conned van - 38 degrees outside - for some R & R before heading out to The Black Stump, good pub bistro recommended by the friendly iCentre Jo!
Spoke to cousin Carol in Cockatoo where it's raining & a bit cooler than here, yay - so we're off to the Barossa in the am via Lovedale - where i hope to spend a couple of hours in the Barmera Visitors Centre learning about Internment Camp 9 where our dad & Carol's dad were interned during the war with many other Italians, having lived in Australia since toddlerhood but never naturalised so classed as 'enemy aliens'!